The Bingtuan: China’s Paramilitary Colonizing Force in East Turkestan 1 Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary 2 2. Bingtuan History and Propaganda 4 3. Urbanization and Expansion 10 4. Cracking Down: Prisons, Anti-Terrorism and Stability Maintenance 15 5. Employment Discrimination 21 6. Displacement and Environmental Destruction 26 7. Recommendations 33 8. Appendix 35 9. Acknowledgements 37 10. Endnotes 38 Cover image: A guide gestures to a depiction of early bingtuan migrants to East Turkestan, from a state media report on the Bingtuan Museum in Shihezi. 2 1. Executive Summary The bingtuan (also known as the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) or in Mandarin: xinjiang shengchang jianshe bingtuan—(this report will refer to the group as the bingtuan), is a paramilitary organization in East Turkestan that answers directly to the central Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government in Beijing. Its goals are primarily colonial: develop the land in East Turkestan, secure the border, and maintain stability. Its structure reflects its paramilitary organization, with 14 divisions made up of dozens of regiments. Ethnically, the bingtuan is 86% Han, compared to the overall proportion of Han in East Turkestan, which is only 40%. The bingtuan represents one of the foremost institutions of Han dominance, and marginalization of Uyghurs and other indigenous ethnic groups, in East Turkestan. This report details the bingtuan activity with regard to propaganda, urbanization, prisons, militarization, employment discrimination, and rural policies causing displacement and environmental destruction. The report methodology includes translation of Chinese government documents, interviews with Uyghur people living overseas who witnessed bingtuan policies firsthand before fleeing East Turkestan, and research on academic and media reports in Chinese, Uyghur and English, particularly using the Uyghur Human Rights Project’s access to Uighurbiz, the website of Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti. Professor Tohti was a Uyghur intellectual who worked extensively to research and provide constructive solutions to economic and political problems confronting the Uyghur people and Chinese government in East Turkestan. Widely considered a moderate Uyghur scholar, Professor Tohti was nevertheless imprisoned by Chinese authorities in January 2014. Among his chief concerns was the bingtuan. Professor Tohti saw the bingtuan as a source of ethnic division and Han colonialism in East Turkestan that reinforced ethnic divisions rather than bringing peace. In 2013, Professor Tohti wrote a series of recommendations to the CCP with regard to the bingtuan. These are reprinted as an Appendix to the report. Section 2 of the report documents CCP propaganda using the bingtuan to build a historical narrative of Chinese control over East Turkestan. Chinese propaganda depicts the bingtuan as a continuous part of Han colonization efforts in East Turkestan dating back thousands of years. However, the bingtuan is a unique organization founded in 1954. Originally formed from decommissioned soldiers after World War II, the bingtuan has had a turbulent history in the region. The bingtuan has grown significantly, and today commands a population of 2.68 million, with 14 divisions, an area of 80,000 square km, and 14 companies. The organization is currently a multibillion-dollar business which constitutes 17% of Xinjiang’s GDP, manufactures 40% of the region’s wool, and exports 17% of the world’s ketchup. Its purposes are: 1) development and construction (which includes mandates to vigorously promote urbanization, industrialization, and agricultural modernization); and 2) to safeguard the frontier, maintain stability and promote ethnic unity. The primary means by which the bingtuan is able to accomplish its goal of Sinification is by large-scale migration of ethnic Han Chinese to East Turkestan. The political leadership of the bingtuan is almost entirely Han. Of the 15 top members of the bingtuan’s party 3 committee, only one is non-Han, a Uyghur, and only one of the top 15 is a Han woman. No Uyghur women are included among the top leaders. Section 3 of the report describes the rapid urbanization of the bingtuan brought about by the large-scale construction of new cities—five in the past decade. Uighurbiz frequently documented the ways that these cities marginalized Uyghurs, including through competing for land and water resources, mineral resources, investment, and administrative resources. The cities serve to absorb thousands of Han migrants from other regions of China. As the CCP continues laying new plans for city construction, it has pledged to direct city-building efforts to southern regions, in order to dilute and control the largest areas of Uyghur population. To support its massive city-building, the CCP invests not only in construction but also in subsidizing housing there for Han migrants; the bingtuan accounts for more than half of all affordable housing in East Turkestan. As the Chinese government develops the bingtuan, the bingtuan in turn has developed international holdings to expand the reach of its investments. Section 4 reviews ways in which the bingtuan has cracked down on the Uyghur people through its prison system and militarization of its police force. The bingtuan prisons do not generally house Uyghurs. Instead they are another means of colonization, and the Chinese government transfers Han prisoners from interior Chinese provinces to East Turkestan to incarcerate them. Historically, tens of thousands of prisoners have been transferred and prisoners are used as a labor source by the bingtuan; Uyghurs are incarcerated in the XUAR prison system. Nevertheless, the bingtuan police and militia are involved in control of Uyghurs. In times of upheaval the bingtuan prisons have been used to house Uyghurs and the bingtuan militia have been mobilized for the arrest and extrajudicial killing of Uyghurs. The bingtuan has been involved in quashing Uyghur protests throughout history, including after the July 5, 2009 unrest. Today, the bingtuan is actively involved in anti-terrorism and security maintenance, specifically targeting the Uyghur religion, Islam. It has also mobilized to repress Christian religious practice. Section 5 analyzes the bingtuan treatment of Uyghurs in the bingtuan job economy. Based on testimony from a Uyghur teacher in the bingtuan city of Shihezi (Shixenzi in Uyghur), UHRP documents ways in which Uyghurs experience discrimination in the job market and the education system. Uyghurs face widespread discrimination in the cotton industry, which imports hundreds of thousands of Han Chinese annually as temporary workers harvesting cotton, to the exclusion of local Uyghurs. Finally, UHRP analyzes reports of employment discrimination across industries based on job postings and hiring announcements. Section 6 documents forcible demolitions, focusing on a 2013 incident documented at length by Uighurbiz involving destruction of Uyghur homes without fair compensation, the arrest of protestors and the harassment of individuals who tried to speak out. Uyghurs have been displaced by bingtuan environmental policies, specifically the large-scale desertification caused by bingtuan draining of the Tarim River and destruction of poplar trees. The bingtuan has also contributed to massive environmental pollution. Finally, the bingtuan’s mineral exploitation in East Turkestan has further displaced Uyghurs and contributed to the destruction of the environment. 4 2. Bingtuan history and propaganda The bingtuan, also known as the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), is a paramilitary organization in East Turkestan that answers directly to the central Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government in Beijing. Its goals are primarily colonial: develop the land in East Turkestan, secure the border, and maintain stability. Its structure reflects its paramilitary organization, with 14 divisions and under them dozens of regiments. Ethnically, the bingtuan is 86% Han, compared to the overall percentage of Han in East Turkestan, which is only 40%. The bingtuan represents Han dominance, and marginalization of Uyghurs and other indigenous ethnic groups in East Turkestan. The bingtuan is a vast organization with tremendous reach. The bingtuan website provides statistics current as of 2014, which give an impression of the organization’s large population, sprawling area (both urban and rural), vast financial holdings, and various institutions, including municipalities, cultural institutions and corporations under its command: At present, the Corps involves 2.68 million people, with 14 divisions, seven cities, 175 regiments and over 2,000 companies. It exercises jurisdiction over an area of some 80,000 square km and nearly 1.3333 million hectares of arable land. The Corps has formed a comprehensive economic system, along with sound public security organs and social undertakings such as science and research, education, culture, health, sport, finance and insurance: there are now about 4,000 industrial, transportation, construction and commercial enterprises and 14 listed companies; five economic development areas at the national level and 24 zones at the autonomous region and Corps levels; 15 national-level and 65 Corps-level leading enterprises in terms of agricultural industrialization; seven regular institutions of higher education and institutions of higher education for adults and 556 vocational, technical, high and primary schools and kindergartens; 197 radio and television